Youngsters get involved in democracy

(Date of issue: Thursday 9 October 2008)

Carlisle’s youngsters will be getting to grips with democracy, next week and telling Carlisle City Council what issues affect them.

Local Democracy Week (13-19 October), the national campaign which aims to get people involved in decision making and to take part in democracy, gets underway on Monday 13 October.

This is the eighth year running that Carlisle City Council has supported this campaign and have organised two events in partnership with Carlisle District primary and secondary schools.

To launch the week, year 6 pupils from four primary schools will be taking part in a Young Mayor event on Monday 13 October, in the Carlisle City Council Chamber.

The schools who have signed up to take part in the Young Mayor elections, are Hayton CE School, Stanwix Primary School, Inglewood Junior School and last year’s winners – Brook Street Primary School.

Chaired by the Mayor, each Young Mayor candidate will present to an audience of classmates, family, councillors and staff their manifesto. He/she will say why he/she would like to be Young Mayor and why he/she would make a good Young Mayor. After each presentation, there will be a question and answer session followed by a vote, in true election style, with voting slips, a polling booth and ballot boxes. The winning candidate will become Young Mayor 2008.

This is a good opportunity to find out what the ‘hot’ topics are with our younger children.

This year will be the turn of Newman Secondary School to host the Political Speed Dating event on Tuesday 14 October.

Up to 10 councillors and 10 pupils will follow speed-dating rules. Each session is three minutes long with a two-minute break for the students to assess and score how well they thought the councillors tackled the questions and the issues raised.

All the questions will be about Carlisle City Council services and will provide councillors with an opportunity to find out what young people think about the Council’s services.

Related Links

• Local Democracy Campaigns
• Local Democracy Week - Carlisle 2008
• Hayton C of E Primary School
• Brook Street Primary School
• Stanwix Primary School